Winery Tour - July 12, 2010

 Senne's Summary: Today we took a tour to two wineries! Scenery and wine were both excellent!

This morning after we woke up (earlier than usual… 9:30 ish) we headed out to get a sandwich (this is becoming the regular breakfast/lunch food!) and ate it by a fountain in the middle of the maze of streets. Some guy was playing the accordion (very French!) and then he washed his face and hands and filled up his water bottle out of the fountain (tres icky!)

Next we attempted to go to the post office to try to finally mail those Paris postcards… the line was enormous (and not moving) so we tried to use the automatic machines. I’m guessing they aren’t for buying just stamps?!? If they are we couldn’t figure out how!

We had quite a bit of time before we had to meet for our winery tour so we wandered down the main drag looking for a “Tabac” as I had a vague recollection of reading somewhere that you could get stamps at these places. The first place we found that said Tabac was an ice cream store??? There did not appear to be any stamps there ☺ Then we found another with postcards in the front- - Score! We finally mailed our Paris postcards just in time to start looking for our Aix postcards.

We headed down to the tourist information office to ask the two questions preying heavily on our minds this morning:

1)   Where is the Laundromat?

2)   Where is the Internet Café?

The very nice man told us that he did indeed parlez-vous Anglais… however he seemed to not really understand the questions we asked him :) Steve asked him our two questions and he said “Oh yes, very important. The most important.” Then he pulled out a map and proceeded to show us all the important sites we should not miss in Aix. He circled them all on the map, and explained them all to us. We very politely listened and then asked again about “washing clothes”. “Oh yes. Right.” He says and shows us where the shopping mall is. We gave up on that one and tried the internet question. He put an x on the map that looked like it would be a few blocks from the tourist information office. 1 out of 2 isn’t bad, right? So we wander down the street and realize we’ve come too far… we come back up the other side of the street and realize the internet café is just around the corner from the tourist information office… probably 20 steps. So we look inside. There are about 6 computers and the place is jam-packed. Steve decides to go in and have a look anyway. The guy tells him that they only have French keyboards, but there are English keyboards up by the hotel de ville. Steve has experience with the French keyboard in Paris, so decides to wait until we find the English one.

We head over to the tourist information office again (this is where we are meeting for our wine tour) and look at the other stuff they have on offer. We were thinking about renting a car to explore the little villages, but aren’t really sure where to go or what to do. Steve talks to one of the ladies about what to do, but upon looking closely at the stuff she has shown us we decide that it isn’t really what we are looking for. When I look at the tours I see one that is tomorrow that is the “perched villages” tour. This is exactly what I am looking for 😁 We can see the villages, don’t have to rent a car, and don’t have to worry about the driving or parking. We end up booking that tour for tomorrow!

Our wine tour finally begins. We are in an air-conditioned (thank goodness!) mini-van with two other very nice couples. Our tour guide (who speaks English) is a very nice youngish (late 20’s?) girl who grew up in Aix.

First we head out to the Luberon and go to a winery called Chateau la Dorgonne. We get to have a look at their beautiful chateau, (only from the outside, because the family that runs the winery lives there) which I think should be my next house! It is simply stunning and has a beautiful view of the valley. Anyone want to give me 1.5 Million Euros so I can buy my own Provencal Chateau? Or how about 5 million Euros so I can get enough land to plant myself a vineyard?!

 Yes please! I would like to live here!

Next she takes us into the place where they make the wine. We see all the big metal containers as well as some oak barrels.

Next is the wine tasting! Yes! We try 2 roses, 2 whites, and 3 reds. We didn’t spit it out (who spits out perfectly good wine???) but we only tasted a little of each one.

Next we drove through a little village (Mirabeau?) and on to the next winery Chateau Vignelaure. This place is a bigger operation than the last. There is another beautiful Chateau, and a much bigger place where they make and store the wine. We actually go underground to see the storage areas. It was Very Very Very interesting.

 

We learned a lot of interesting facts (of which I’ve mostly forgotten everything already), and then headed to the wine tasting area. This time we tried 3 roses and 3 reds. Steve and I liked one of the reds so much that we bought a bottle (not for tonight… I think we’ve had quite enough already!). Only 8 Euros, direct from the Chateau… ahhhh France is lovely!

And here is just a little taste of how beautiful the French countryside is...

On our way back to Aix we stop at a beautiful field, which has both lavender and sunflowers in bloom. Apparently there are only a couple of weeks during the year when they are both on bloom, so we are lucky :) It was absolutely beautiful.

After the tour we pick up some pizza, bring it back to the apartment and eat out on the terrace. I’m so glad we got a terrace with this apartment, as it is a lovely place to just sit and relax (and type blogs 😁).

After dinner we go to scope out the Laundromat. After another attempt at the tourist information office a nice girl printed out a list of laundry services and we managed to find a “lavomatique” only a couple of blocks from our place. Question #1 answered!

Then we found an internet café on the same block. The guy told Steve he had English keyboards, so we went in. Ha, those are some kind of crazy English keyboards. Steve says it isn’t the same as the weird one he had in Paris, but it was definitely wonky. We checked our e-mail. Sent our parents messages to let them know we’re still alive (stop worrying Senne!), and attempted to login to Facebook. Not happening.

• Facebook does not like me logging in from a different computer
•  It wants to tell me why in French
• When I sort of figure out what to do... it wants me to enter the stupid words that they use as security checks… which don’t load on the computer

So I gave up. Seems like we’re stopping facebook cold turkey this week. How will I spy on my friends? How will I know what interesting things are going on in my absence? How will I thrill all my friends with my adventures???

Here is one more interesting fact (once again probably only interesting to me, but it’s all about me, right?) about France in general. A lot of people here have dogs. They don’t seem to walk them in the parks. They like to walk them right down the city streets. Dogs do what they do when they go for walks right in the middle of the sidewalk. The weird thing is that most French people don’t clean up after their dogs. So here’s a tip for anyone planning a trip to France… although the things you are seeing while you walk are very interesting and beautiful, don’t forget to look down! Knock on wood, but I’ve been lucky so far… which is surprising because I tend to be a magnet for that kind of stuff!

And finally, here is a depiction of how we feel after tasting all that wine!

Tomorrow the “perched villages”!